On Monday morning, the Supreme Court declined to hear Davis v. Ermold, marking the end of a decade-long legal battle for Kim Davis, the first victim jailed, sued, and held personally liable post-Obergefell v. Hodges for her religious beliefs on marriage. This denial is heartbreaking for Kim Davis and is a miscarriage of justice. Refusing to take up this case is a stark departure from the Constitution the court purports to protect.
Kim Davis now personally faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for refusing to put her name on a “marriage” license that violated her Christian faith. Despite this, our fight for the religious liberty of Americans like Kim Davis, and to overturn the Obergefell opinion, is far from over.
Kim Davis didn’t ask to become the center of a hot-button culture war debate when she took a stand for her faith. Instead, she sought to abide by her Christian convictions in her role as the county clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky.
When the Obergefell opinion fabricated a “right” to same-sex “marriage” nationwide, Davis sought a religious accommodation to prevent her from issuing “marriage” licenses contrary to her belief that marriage is exclusively a union between one man and one woman.
Kim received the religious accommodation she desired so that her name would be removed from marriage licenses in three forms just months after the 2015 Obergefell opinion was handed down. This accommodation came from Democratic Governor Steven Beshear in September 2015, from Republican Governor Matt Bevin in December 2015, and from a bill unanimously passed by the state legislature in April 2016.
Kim Davis received the simple accommodation she requested, and David Ermold and David Moore received a license. But they wanted Kim’s name on their license. When that did not happen, they continued this case as a vendetta against Kim to punish her for her Christian faith and belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.
David Ermold and David Moore sought to personally target Kim Davis for her Christian faith and make an example out of her. They could have gone to other county clerks or officials for their “marriage” license, but they wanted to force a Christian, Kim Davis, to depart from her religious beliefs and put her name on a document that violated God’s word.
As a result of their public crusade to humiliate, punish, and bankrupt Davis for her faith, she was jailed, hauled before a jury, and now faces crippling monetary damages based on nothing more than purported hurt feelings and a vendetta against her Christian convictions. Government officials like Davis do not shed their constitutional rights upon being elected.
By denying Davis’s petition for justice, the high court has let stand an opinion that stripped a government defendant of her immunity and any personal First Amendment defense for her religious expression.
This time, Kim Davis is the victim of religious animus and is being deprived of her constitutional freedom of religion. Tomorrow, it could be you.
The Supreme Court’s denial of this case is an aberration from the religious freedom the Constitution ensures for all Americans. Our fight to overturn Obergefell is not over –– it is not a matter of if, but when, this wrongly decided opinion will be overturned.
Much like Roe v. Wade, Obergefell v. Hodges was egregiously wrong from the start and has no basis in the Constitution. Marriage should have never been federalized, and we will continue working with state legislators and individuals to overturn Obergefell and to return the issue of marriage to the states.
This may mark the end of an era in litigating Davis’s case, but the fight to overturn Obergefell and protect religious liberty has just begun. I have no doubt that Davis’s resolve will serve as a catalyst to raise up many more challenges to the wrongly decided Obergefell opinion.
Obergefell is legal fiction pulled out of thin air that jeopardizes the religious liberty of countless Americans who believe in God’s definition of marriage. Obergefell’s days are numbered, and we will not rest until it is overturned.
Until then, we must pray, fight, and contend for when Obergefell is no longer the law of the land.
